Written after the deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne, she found it a struggle to finish and in her portraits of Shirley Keeldar and Caroline Helstone Charlotte Bronte poured out her feelings for her dead sisters.Nevertheless,it is a historical novel which depicts an unreasy era of Luddite riots, bad harvests and social unrest as well as Charlotte Bronte`s belief that the denial of the world of feeling is responsible for much of society`s suffering.